---
title: The Prince had never been a really truthful boy, and it would have b… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The Prince had never been a really truthful boy, and it would have been just like him to bring home a bottle with nothing in it and then to pretend that there was a dragon inside. Who acts: Prince, dragon. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Fiery Dragon], with its dependency tree 
---

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# The Book of Dragons, The Fiery Dragon\], sentence 141

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Prince had never been a really truthful boy, and it would have been just like him to bring home a bottle with nothing in it and then to pretend that there was a dragon inside.

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**Who acts:** Prince, dragon · **What happens:** have, not be, be, pretend · **To what, where:** truthful boy

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Fiery Dragon\]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince, dragon), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg23661:13:141
# text = The Prince had never been a really truthful boy, and it would have been just like him to bring home a bottle with nothing in it and then to pretend that there was a dragon inside.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	really	really	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	truthful	truthful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
14	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
15	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	cop	_	_
16	just	just	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
17	like	like	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
21	home	home	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	bottle	bottle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
24	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	23	nmod	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nmod	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	31	advmod	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	pretend	pretend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
32	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
33	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	34	expl	_	_
34	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	advcl	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
37	inside	inside	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the Prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **is a** | participle |  | a truthful boy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | infinitive | the Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | participle | Prince |  |  |  |  | bring, home *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **pretend** | to-infinitive | Prince *not said here* |  |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **be** | past | a dragon |  |  | there |  | inside *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Project Gutenberg book 23661 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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